ERVING — With easy access to Route 2 and the Millers River, town officials say Erving Center has unique potential for businesses and residents. Now, the town hopes to leverage the area’s features in a new municipal planning project influenced by residents, business owners and other stakeholders.
This project will only involve Erving Center — the section of town farthest east, where Town Hall is — not the areas of Ervingside or Farley.
Whatever Erving Center’s assets may be, the area also has its challenges. It does not have public water service, and was largely built around a paper mill that is no longer in business, said Erving Administrative Coordinator Bryan Smith. Route 2 is a double-edged sword, giving easy access to local businesses and easy transportation for residents, but also creating problems for pedestrians and traffic, said town Planning Assistant Mariah Kurtz.
“We’re walking into 2020 going, ‘What’s the future of Erving Center?’” Smith said in December. “How do you attract business owners, how do you attract residents, when you have those constraints?”
To help sort through these questions, this spring Erving is working with an architecture class at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The professor is Erika Zekos, who is also the director of the undergraduate architecture program.
Building on technical information and community input, the class will culminate at the end of its semester with a document that the town expects to use to guide future development in Erving Center, Kurtz explained.
In recent years, the town’s files have been updated piecemeal to reflect modern views on Ervingside. In 2018, the town’s open space and recreation plan was updated to include the new Riverfront Park in Ervingside. More recently, a report on Erving’s public roads found significant needs in the transportation infrastructure, Kurtz said. But there hasn’t been a sweeping review like what this project with UMass will provide.
Last week, the UMass class started meeting with local stakeholders, Kurtz said. She mentioned the owners of Freight House Antiques and Erving Station candy store, the reverend of a local church and students at Erving Elementary School.
“We’d like to get a better feel for what residents would like to see downtown, if anything,” Kurtz said. “We don’t want to impose anything. We want to let everyone have their input.”
Forums for a more general audience are scheduled for this week and next. On Wednesday from 1:45 to 3 p.m., the class will be at the Erving Senior Center to take input. On Wednesday, March 11, also from 1:45 to 3 p.m., the class will be at Town Hall for another forum, this one also with Smith, Kurtz and other town officials.
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.